Beatriz Sarlo is one of Latin America's most important cultural critics. Born in 1942, she studied literature at the University of Buenos Aires, "es con la literatura...con la que tengo una relación más intensa," she has confessed. True to her formal training in literature, Sarlo's work has included studies on Argentina's literary giants: Sarmiento, Borges and Cortázar.

In 1978 Sarlo and a group of progressive intellectuals founded the journal Punto de Vista during the military regime, a courageous act at a time when alternative voices were considered subversive. From its origins, Punto de Vista already showed Sarlo's departure from traditional literary criticism to a more inclusive definition of culture. A few years into publication, the lead article of the bimonthly journal focused on the study of popular culture: "....it's not just about 'high culture,' but about popular culture...."

Following that same idea of the development of the modern city, four years later in La imaginación técnica: suenos modernos de la cultura argentina Sarlo expanded her study on the cultural development of Buenos Aires of the 1920s and 30s in a truly interdisciplinary approach. The book studied a multiplicity of facets: technology, modernity, fiction and mass media. Francine Masiello notes that Sarlo "is interested in the ways in which technology enters the imagination of popular and middle class sectors and the ways in which devices...shape modern thinking." (Note: Book to be published in English by Stanford University Press in 2000.)

The work on Borges was followed by Escenas de la vida posmoderna; intelectuales arte y video cultura en Argentina, 1994 and Instantáneas: medios, ciudad y costumbres en el fin de siglo, 1996. Commenting on the latter, David Foster has noted, "In this work Sarlo makes it clear that the whole range of cultural production must be submitted to a theoretically grounded ideological analysis..." that "must be able to forge a public discourse that makes cultural commentary a vital part of a vigorous national debate about culture on all social levels."

Sarlo is well known in English-speaking academic circles, having taught at Columbia, Maryland, Berkeley and Cambridge. She has also been a Wilson Center and Guggenheim fellow. Much like other Latin American cultural critics and public intellectuals (Mexico's Carlos Monsivais and Brazil's Heloisa Buarque de Hollanda), Sarlo's work is not limited to the ivory tower. Her opinions in the Latin American press can range from art to popular religion; and of course politics.